CORRESPONDENCE.

THE FRESHMAN CREW VS. CORNELL.

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
February 21, 1879

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

A LETTER appeared in last week's Advocate censuring the fact that the Freshmen had reconsidered their vote to challenge Cornell, and had ended in challenging Columbia, and that they had done it at the advice of the Executive Committee. That they did n't stand a sure chance of winning ought not to be any cause for not challenging, but there are other reasons. Cornell, taking into account the present relations between the colleges, might consider it a sort of apology for what she calls not fair play, but we have no apology to make, since the Executive Committee have done that already. Then it has been rumored that ex-Captain Bancroft said that if he had to row last year's Cornell crew, be should require his whole last year's 'Varsity crew, and surely '82's crew is n't equal to that yet. Let '82, however, do her best to beat Columbia, should Columbia accept, and reserve herself a little bit longer for Cornell, when she can meet her on an even footing at least. '82.

LATIN 8.TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

WILL you kindly allow me space in your columns for a few remarks concerning the recent Mid-Year Examination in Latin 8?

A great part of the paper then presented is, I think, open to criticism as involving distinctions too minute to be of any moment, but the portion relating to Composition calls for especial comment Composition is not embraced in the course, and its presence on the examination-paper caused very great surprise. True, the sentences given were translations from the author read, but their selection was purely arbitrary, and to expect one to load the memory with even a quarter of the innumerable idiomatic constructions in Plautus were an evident absurdity. Is it not, too, a somewhat novel idea that a thorough understanding of a Latin author is measured by ability to render an English version into the original, or the original into Greek?

I fully appreciate the difficulty attendant upon a judicious choice of questions for an examination, but certainly a very little forethought would have prevented a Professor from giving a paper which will doubtless be very imposing in pamphlet form, but which is utterly valueless as a test of the thoroughness of the work done.